The promptness with which, irrespective of party affiliations, the people of the North assumed the anti-slavery attitude and those of the South placed themselves under the pro-slavery banner, at the time of the Missouri contest in 1820, shows the extent to which these two sections of the United States were already divided upon this great question.  The South, retarded in its growth by the employment of slave labor, as compared with the North already exhibited an example of arrested development, and her politicians saw that if the balance of power between the slave-holding and the non-slave-holding States was to be maintained, a wider field for the extension of their favorite institution would have to be provided.  It is in the light of this motive that the desire of the South for the annexation of Cuba and of Texas, even at the expense of a war with Mexico, is to be interpreted.  The compromise of 1820 satisfied the demands of the slavocracy for a time, but only for a time.  In 1850 the South again demanded, and obtained concessions.  It required a civil war to demonstrate to us the futility of endeavoring to avert by compromise the conflict that was irrepressible between the North and South so long as slavery existed in the one, and was reprobated in the other.

The different attitudes assumed at the present day by the North and South in regard to the Tariff question, is explainable by the difference in the industrial life of these two sections.  The North is essentially a manufacturing centre, and, as such, demands high import duties as a protection to her manufacturers and merchants.  The South is, as a whole, agricultural, and favors low duties with the idea of thus extending foreign trade, and affording a larger market for the sale of her raw products.  A striking proof of the influence of the industrial life of a section in determining its attitude towards the tariff, is seen in the change of front of Massachusetts after 1824 from free-trade to protection, this change being wholly due to the predominating influence acquired by her manufactures over her commerce and agriculture.

FINIS.

NOTES.

For the assistance of those who may desire a fuller acquaintance with the administrative methods of our Federal and State Governments than is to be obtained from this book, these bibliographical notes are appended.  Not only the authorities actually consulted in the preparation of this monograph are given, but mention is also made of the most reliable and accessible sources of information upon the more important topics germane to the study of Government and Administration.  In arrangement, the notes follow the order of topics used in the text.

General Works upon United States Government.